Lots-O' Huggin' Bear
Lots-O' Huggin' Bear, more commonly known as Lotso, for short, is the main antagonist of the 2010 Oscar winning Disney/Pixar film, Toy Story 3. He is a large, pink, anthropomorphic, strawberry-scented teddy bear who used to rule Sunnyside Daycare like a prison with the help of his former Minions - Ken, Big Baby, Stretch, Sparks, Chunk, Twitch, Bookworm and the Monkey. However Lotso's reign of terror ended when Andy's toys arrived. He is Woody's arch-nemesis. He was voiced by the legendary actor Ned Beatty, who also played Otis in the 1978 Superman film. Personality When Lotso first greeted Andy's toys, he seemed like a caring, compassionate, friendly, and polite bear, welcoming them with open arms, giving them a tour and telling the toys that different kids at the daycare center would continue to play with them for years to come and that they would never be unloved or rejected. However this was only a ruse as he was later revealed to be an evil, greedy and selfish toy who rules Sunnyside as a prison and imprisons new toys in the Caterpillar Room, so they can be abused by the young toddlers there. This nature was because of his owner Daisy accidentally losing him and her parents replacing him with a new bear, though he was considered to be a kind friend to both Chuckles and Big Baby before that happened. Because of this, Lotso has a negative philosophy about being a toy, believing that they're nothing special and only made to be thrown out in the trash. He even believes love is a complete illusion and while he the ruler of Sunnyside, he developed nihilistic tendencies, as he stated that all toys were ultimately made to be thrown away. At the landfill, despite thanking Buzz and Woody for saving him from being shreddered, Lotso was still charismatic, pretending to be remorseful for his actions, but revealed his true nature once again. This was shown when he refused to push the stop button to save Woody and the gang from the incinerator and instead left them to die (though they were saved by the Aliens). Background Lotso first started out as a Christmas present for a little girl named Daisy and instantly became her favorite toy. Lotso seemed to have enjoyed every moment of the time spent at Daisy's house. One day, Daisy took Lotso and her two other toys, Big Baby and Chuckles, out for a drive with her parents and stopped at a rest stop for a little bit of playtime. After lunch, Daisy fell asleep and her parents took her back into the car, accidentally leaving Lotso, Big Baby, and Chuckles behind. The three toys waited for a long time, but Daisy never returned for them. Not wanting to give up, Lotso, followed by Chuckles and Big Baby, headed off into the wilderness and finally returned to Daisy's house, only to discover that Daisy had another Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear toy, leaving Lotso heartbroken and feeling betrayed. Those feelings embittered Lotso, and it made him turn evil, and he forcibly ordered Chuckles and Big Baby to leave Daisy and follow him. Chuckles tried to explain that Daisy only replaced him because she missed him so much, but Lotso was too disappointed to listen. The three lost, cast-off, unloved, and unwanted toys hitched a ride on a Pizza Planet delivery truck's rear bumper until the truck hit a bump in the road, causing them to fall off the bumper. Then they found Sunnyside Daycare, where Lotso and Big Baby somehow took over the daycare and "rigged the whole system". Appearances Backstory Lotso first started out as a Christmas present for a young girl named Daisy and instantly became her favorite toy. Lotso enjoyed every moment he spent with Daisy. One day, Daisy took Lotso and two of her other toys, a baby doll named Big Baby and a clown named Chuckles, out for a little drive with her parents and stopped in a field for some playtime. After lunch, Daisy fell asleep and her parents took her back into the car, accidentally leaving Lotso, Big Baby, and Chuckles behind. The three toys waited for a long time, but Daisy never came back for them. Eventually they decided to go back to Daisy on their own. They walked all the way back and finally made it back to Daisy's house. Big baby lifted Chuckles and Lotso to the window where they saw Daisy in bed only to discover that she had bought another Lotso toy. Seeing this, Lotso felt heartbroken and betrayed and then turned bitter and evil. He told Chuckles and Big Baby that Daisy had replaced them and forced to leave. However, Chuckles saw through the lie and told Lotso that Daisy only replaced him, but Lotso furiously silenced him and insisted Daisy replaced all of them. Lost and unwanted, the three toys hitched a ride on the rear bumper of a truck. After a long drive through the rain, the truck hit a bump and the toys fell off and landed in front of a daycare center called Sunnyside. Lotso went inside, took over the daycare and turned it into a concentration camp for toys. He ruled with an iron fist, having toys be tortured and abused by the toddlers in the Caterpillar Room, and having them thrown out into the garbage chute when they finally got broken, while he would be played with nicely in the Butterfly Room. He made Big Baby his right-hand man and recruited a doll named Ken, a rock monster named Chunk, an insect warrior named Twitch, a robot named Sparks and an octopus named Stretch to help them run Sunnyside, while Chuckles decided he wasn't going to have any part of Lotso's empire. One day Chuckles got his side torn, but a Sunnyside student named Bonnie Anderson found him, took him home and repaired him. Chuckles says other toys weren't so lucky, implying that Lotso had them thrown out in the trash chute-possibly to their deaths. Toy Story 3 Lotso is an old, pinkish-purple stuffed teddy bear with a strawberry scent and a Southern accent, who uses a wooden toy mallet as a cane (despite the fact he is able to walk without it, so he probably uses it by choice). He is first introduced riding over to Woody, Buzz, and the other toys in his dump truck. He greets them in a friendly, albeit fake manner and shows them around Sunnyside. He assigns the new toys in the Caterpillar Room, knowing that the toys there are treated abusively by the younger kids. However unknown to Lotso, Woody escapes to go home to Andy and is found by Bonnie. That night, after the toys experience a rather rough playtime with the toddlers in the room, Buzz decides to go find Lotso to ask for his friends to be moved to the Butterfly Room because they do not belong in the Caterpillar Room. When Buzz finally reaches Lotso in the library (after being discovered by Lotso's thugs as an eavesdropper and forced into their "Time-Out Chair" for interrogation), he requests a transfer for him and his friends, to which Lotso agrees (but only to Buzz's moving, knowing that Buzz might be useful to him). However, he refuses to listen to Buzz's plea to move his friends with him, thinking that the Caterpillar Room needs toys for toddlers to play with, which makes Buzz instantly refuse his offer. He is unwilling to abandon his friends because they stay together as a family. Thinking Buzz is too useful to give up, Lotso then tells his henchmen to put Buzz back in the Time-Out Chair. He then uses a Buzz Lightyear action figure manual, which is given to him by the Bookworm, to reset Buzz to his demo mode. Lotso then makes Buzz think he is a real space ranger again and manipulates him into thinking that his friends are helpers of Emperor Zurg. Lotso then makes Buzz imprison the toys inside their cells, with Mr. Potato Head being put in "The Box." To ensure that Andy's toys will follow his many rules, Lotso tosses them Woody's hat, making them think he killed him. The next night, while Lotso is asleep, Woody, who had escaped Sunnyside earlier, returns and manages to rescue his imprisoned friends after discovering Lotso's evil reputation from Chuckles. Woody's friends are relieved to see he is still alive and Lotso did not kill him, and together they formulate a plan to escape Sunnyside, including the attempt to get Buzz to rejoin their side. When the toys attempt to flee Sunnyside through the garbage chute that the Chatter Telephone had told Woody about earlier, Lotso and his gang catch them at a dumpster, blocking their route of escape. Lotso attempts to coax the toys into coming back to the Caterpillar Room to join his family again so as to avoid an approaching garbage truck nearby, but then Jessie jumps out and calls Lotso a liar and a bully who is running Sunnyside like a prison and states that she'd rather die than come back. Barbie agrees and angrily expresses her feelings of disapproval of being forced to obey orders. This makes Lotso signal Stretch to push the toys into a dumpster, thinking that disposing them as trash will be better. At that moment, Ken appears, having come for Barbie, and attempts to stop Lotso, but Lotso teases Ken for loving Barbie. When Ken disagrees with Lotso, Lotso becomes enraged at Ken's act of defection as well as his attachment to Barbie and throws him across the dumpster so as to force him to join her. Ken then speaks out, explaining what Lotso has done to Sunnyside, making Lotso question his cohorts if anyone concurs with Ken. When no one responds, Lotso continues with his lecture, making a futile attempt to deceive the toys into thinking that not one kid has ever loved (or will ever love) a toy. Woody then attempts to remind Lotso of his old life with his former owner, Daisy. However, Lotso immediately becomes disappointed as he wants nothing to do with Daisy, but to forget completely that his relationship to Daisy had ever existed. Woody then pulls out Big Baby's old pendant (received from Chuckles during his stay at Bonnie's house earlier), and after unsuccessfully telling Lotso how she has loved him, Woody tosses the pendant to Big Baby, who picks it and, looking at the token of his long lost love, sniffles, "Mama." Outraged at how Big Baby is still emotionally connected to his former owner, Lotso snaps out at Big Baby, yelling at him that Daisy never loved him as he steals the pendant from him and smashes it to pieces with his mallet, making Big Baby burst into tears. He then orders a now reluctant Stretch to push the toys into the dumpster, pokes Big Baby roughly with his cane for being a baby and a "dummy", and denounces all toys as trash awaiting disposal. Without warning, Big Baby lifts up Lotso, causing him to drop his mallet. Lotso demands Big Baby put him down, but Big Baby, having had enough of his treacherous nature, throws the bear into the dumpster and closes its lid on him. He then blows a raspberry directed at Lotso and allows the toys to escape. As the toys try to leave Sunnyside, however, one of the Aliens has become stuck by the dumpster's lid, prompting Woody to rush back and free the alien by slightly opening the lid. But then, Lotso, having caught sight of Woody through the opening and wanting revenge for having his schemes foiled, grabs Woody's ankle and pulls him into the dumpster, prompting Andy's other toys to rush to his rescue just as the garbage truck arrives to pour the contents of the dumpster into the truck. The truck takes Lotso and Andy's toys to Tri-County Landfill, where they are pushed onto a conveyor belt leading to the shredders. After the toys grab onto a metal object so that they hang from the magnetic ceiling, safe from the shredders, Lotso calls for help from under a golf bag. Woody and Buzz drop down from the ceiling to free Lotso. They use one of the golf clubs to pry up the bag to let Lotso crawl out, and Woody makes Lotso take his hand as the club pulls them up to the ceiling, seconds before the shredders chew up the golf bag. Realizing that the conveyor belt is leading them to an incinerator, Lotso and the toys try to run for it, but the conveyor belt pushes them closer and closer to the furnace. Lotso then notices an emergency stop button and rushes over to grab hold on the lower rung of a ladder leading to the button. He calls to Woody, and Woody and Buzz rush over to nudge Lotso up, allowing him to climb up the ladder and access the button. Woody and Buzz then call to Lotso to push the button, but Lotso, whose inner beliefs have not changed overall, breaks his promise, gives the helpless toys a menacing glare, says an insult directed at Woody, and escapes, leaving the toys to die in the incinerator. However, the toys are rescued by the giant crane that the Aliens have commandeered at the last moment. After the toys emerge out of the furnace, Hamm and Slinky express their desire to get back at Lotso for almost getting them killed, but sadly Woody convinces them to forget it, since he thinks Lotso is not worth it. Meanwhile, as Lotso tries to find his way out of the dump, he turns to see another garbage truck pulling up toward him, forcing him to go limp. As the truck stops next to him, a garbage man steps out of the truck and is surprised upon discovering Lotso, claiming how he has once owned a Lots-o'-Huggin'-Bear during his childhood. Sticking to his love for Lotso (as well as his strawberry scent), the garbage man decides to take him along. Lotso is last seen tied up on the truck's front grill with a few other toys the same garbage man has collected earlier. Lotso panics as he wakes up to find himself in that predicament, but then one of those toys, a frog, advises Lotso to keep his mouth shut to prevent mud and insects from getting in, and Lotso does so right away, ending with the other toys laughing at him. It is unclear what becomes of Lotso after Toy Story 3, but he most likely remains strapped to the truck like the other garbage toys and is eventually thrown away. Gallery Lots-O' Huggin' Bear/Gallery Trivia * Lotso is easily the most evil villain in the Toy Story franchise. * One similarity Lotso shares with Sid Phillips and Stinky Pete, the main antagonists of the first two Toy Story movies, is that they're all gaolers. ** Some other similarities he cares which with Stinky Pete is that they both seemed to be kind and loving at first, but were then revealed to be cruel villains in the end. This is mainly because of a sense of feeling rejected or unloved, which were clearly seen in both Pixar villains. Plus Lotso's defeat is quite similar to Stinky Pete's defeat. Both are unexpectedly found and find themselves in an unwanted predicament: Stinky Pete is taken home by a girl named Amy who likes to draw on her toys, while Lotso becomes a fly attractant for a garbage truck. In fact, the music that played during Lotso's defeat was the same music heard during Stinky Pete's defeat. ** However, unlike Sid and Stinky Pete, who both have redeemable traits - Sid grows up to be a civil garbage man (as revealed in Lotso's movie) while Stinky Pete enjoys being doodled by his new owner Amy - Lotso shows no signs of redemption, proving to be far more evil than both of them combined. * In a viral marketing campaign, Pixar posted two commercials, for a "real" Lotso teddy bear manufactured in 1983 (perhaps even longer), on YouTube. One was a typical American toy commercial from the 80's, and the other was done in Japanese. Both feature the "Toy Story Collection" version of Lotso and are included on the bonus disc of the Toy Story 3 Blu-ray. * The truck Lotso ends up reads "KRUMM". This same word was on Al McWhiggin's suitcase in Toy Story 2. * Lotso is the reprehensive for Toy Story 3 in the 10-Disc Ultimate Toy Box Trilogy set containing the whole Toy Story trilogy. * In the Toy Story 3 book with Woody's POV of the film, Lotso has more lines when he confronts Andy's toys at the dumpster. * The film tie-in book The Art of Toy Story 3 includes these interesting facts about Lotso's development. ** He was originally conceived as a teddy bear from the early 80's Care Bears toy line. This idea was not dropped until after the storyboard was completed and can be seen in the ** The animators also admitted that they increased Lotso's cruelty in the final version of the film in order to ensure that people understood that he got exactly what he deserved, as the test screenings had some kids still sympathizing with him after his backstory was revealed. ** Lee Unkrich, the director of the movie, says he got the inspiration for Lotso's backstory when his niece left her favorite toy - a doll named "Peggy" - at a Burger King resturant, and had replaced her with a new doll named Peggy. He wondered what the old Peggy would think if she came back and discovered there was a new Peggy. ** In addition, Unkrich also mentioned the reason for Lotso's defeat. He refused to send him through the shredder or the incinerator because it would be sadistic. But he definitely got what he deserved on the front of the truck. * Lotso made a cameo appearance in Up, the last Pixar movie released before Toy Story 3. He was spotted next to Dee's bed when Carl's house flies past her window outside. * When Lotso is helped to the emergency stop button on the trash conveyor belt, instead of pushing the button to stop the belt and save the other toys, he glares at them and yells, "Where's your kid now, Sheriff?!" This is a wink to the Internet meme "Where is your God now?", a sarcastic way of inducing fear in a victim (the internet meme in turn originates from a line in a Billy Crystal routine making fun of the incongruity of Edward G. Robinson being cast in The Ten Commandments (1956): "Where's your Messiah now, Moses?") * Lotso's defeat is fitting because it has given him two things he had been asking for: First, The true meaning of love, which he got from the garbage man, who remembered having a Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear toy as a kid. And second, A fitting end to a considerably miserable life, which he would face from the elements, bugs, and mud; and/or from eventually being thrown away again, leading him to die in the shredders or the incinerator. However, this is also a bad ending for him. Since one of the movie's themes involved characters finding their purpose in the changing world or perishing. In the end, his purpose is to perish. * His thick Southern accent, initially soft-spoken demeanor, and many of his iron fist policies as "Warden"—including throwing uncooperative prisoners into "the box"—are clear references to "The Captain," Strother Martin's character from Cool Hand Luke (as well as Lotso' voice actor, Ned Beatty's previous character, Sheriff J.C. Conners, from White Lightning). * According to the official movie magazine for Toy Story 3, Lotso was originally created for A Tin Toy Christmas (which later became Toy Story). * Lotso was portrayed as a "good toy" back when he was friends with Chuckles and Big Baby. However, when Lotso snapped and turned into the antagonist (when he saw that his owner, Daisy replaced him with another Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear toy), he was dropped from the list of protagonists. * Lotso also appeared in every version of the Toy Story 3 Video Game. He appears in the Sunnyside level of the Wii, Play Station 3, Xbox 360 and PC versions with Ned Beatty reprising the role. He is also seen in the enchanted glen in their toy box. In these version of the game, his fate is not revealed or seen. He has a silent appearance in the Play Station 2 and Play Station Portable versions, and his fate is not revealed or seen here either. He also has a silent appearance in the Ninetedo DS version. In that version, his fate is revealed and seen. * Lotso appears in three of the LEGO Toy Story 3 sets. * Lotso's true colors may be hinted at before the release of the film in the LEGO Toy Story 3 playset based on the scene where he leaves Andy's toys to die. The set included Lotso trying to kill Woody and Hamm in an incinerator with the Aliens trying to save them. * In 2012, the Disney Store released a talking plush toy of Lotso with a talking Woody doll. * Test audiences who had sympathized with Lotso for his backstory had wanted to him to push the button in the incinerator scene to redeem himself, but according to the DVD commentary, director Lee Unkrich, explained that the filmmakers decided to drop Lotso's chance for redemption in order to make the audience who had gotten to know Andy's toys over the past 15 years in three movies care about the characters even more as they went to the fire, when it looked like the end for them before the Squeeze Toy Aliens rescued them with the claw. Another reason is because they didn't want Lotso to get off so easy, so they just increased his cruelty to ensure to the audience that he got what he deserved (being strapped to the grille of a garbage truck). * Some people blame Daisy's parents for Lotso's villainous demeanor, as they could have went to look for their daughter's lost toys, instead of replacing Lotso. It is likely that by the time they went back to where they left Lotso, he was already on his way home. * Lotso's later knowledge of Woody and his friends' escaping in the first place is not revealed, but it is likely that the Monkey managed to free himself and alert Lotso, leading to Lotso beating up the Chatter Telephone for information on Woody's whereabouts. * An advertisement for a Lotso bear appears in Tokyo in Cars 2, the first Pixar film released after Toy Story 3. * Lotso was originally supposed to appear in the first film, but the technology needed to create his fur had not existed until the third film. * In the Disney Cruise Line show Villains Tonight, hosted by Hades from the Disney film Hercules, Hades is looking for villains to call, when he mentioned Lotso. However, he doesn't call Lotso as he "always brings that baby with him." * Lotso acts as a foil to Woody. Both were in charge of the toys at their location (Woody, Andy's House and later Bonnie's House; Lotso, Daisy's House and later Sunnyside), and both ended up abandoned by their former owner. However, Woody never gave up on Andy, while Lotso gave up on Daisy. Coincidentally, Lotso's behavior was very similar to Woody's original rendition in Toy Story, specifically his characterization in the Black Friday showing. Also by coincidence, both characters also ended up toned up/toned down for the final version due to unexpected events during a test screening (Woody was originally an immense jerk and lacking of compassion, but toned down after the Black Friday reel nearly shut down production of Toy Story; Lotso, likewise, had his cruelty amplified after test audiences sympathized with Lotso and wanted him to push the button to show that he got exactly what he deserved). * The truck that drove Lotso to sunnyside was a Pizza Planet truck, which has appeared almost every Pixar movie. * In the read-along version of Toy Story 3, Lotso's final scene on the garbage truck is never shown. Category:Characters Category:Toy Story characters Category:Males Category:Objects Category:Toys Category:Animals Category:Bears Category:Villains Category:Heroes turned the darkside Category:Liars Category:Presumed deceased characters Category:Pixar characters Category:Disney characters Category:Antagonist